Zach decided to lay low for a few days, just enough to allow the surveillance to pass.
The next few days were spent with Zach going to lectures as usual and returning. He made some good stew and roasted lamb, one of the few delicacies he was well-acquainted with.
Occasionally, the shadows just beyond his reach would rattle whenever he walked past the streets for some unsettling reason.
And at night, Zach would be woken to see unreal wraith-like creatures moving out and about from his window.
Why was he suddenly seeing such things? He didn't have a clue. All he did know was that what he's seeing was definitely not an illusion.
The following day, at Deusseuh Street, the main street connecting the students' lodging to the academia, he spotted a shop as he stood along the roadside on his wheelchair, with a sign that said "open."
Zach recognized it. Anne frequently visited because they sold various supernatural items and books on ancient conspiracies.
If it was the Zach of before, he would just scoff, adamant that that was just a sneaky ploy to extricate customers of their wealth.
But now Zach was curious, but he wasn't sure how to approach this shop. Right now, he was uncertain if he was still under surveillance.
In the end, he decided to pass on it. Better to be safe than sorry.
He got to a grand hall filled with students who too wanted to write this session's/semester's examination.
"Yoo, Zach, how are you?"
Zach looked to the side to see a youth with obviously dyed blue hair walking towards him with a big smile on his face.
Zach sighed, knowing who this delinquent was.
He was Ralph, one of his coursemates.
"His being all happy and excited to see me meant one thing," Zach inwardly sighed. "He didn't study again."
The youth was notorious for failing his grades. One time, about a year ago, Zach had decided to help him in the exam just once, and that made tham automatically 'buddies'.
"You know you're going to have to study one day, right?" Zach raised a question.
"Huh.. what was that?" he gasped in shock, holding his chest like Zach had just said something sacrilegious.
He paused for a bit and said, "Y-yeah, I'm going to try it." Ralph recalled when he attempted to open a book once; he had slept for twelve hours straight. Even he didn't know he could sleep that long at a stretch.
The exam bell rang, and the hall smelled like desperation and nervousness.
The students sat down randomly, and... yep, you guessed it, Ralph sat directly across from Zach.
Zach looked at the poor student with a mix of pity and anger.
There are people who work ten times harder than him, and yet they still end up in the streets.
Yet he's relying on his dad's money.
Well, it wasn't Zach's problem to judge, so Zach didn't try to advise the youth. As a matter of fact... he wanted the young man to waste his life away. Maybe Zach would wait for the opportunity when he's bankrupt and buy his dad's manor and company. They'll be desperate, so it was bound to be cheaper.
_Zach, you really are an evil fellow_ The corners of Zach's lips curled up.
The exam started, and Zach immediately began writing on his sheet of paper.
Ralph sat on his seat, looking unbothered.
The hall was as silent as a graveyard; it seemed as though if a pin dropped, it would echo.
Zach quickly scribbled away at his paper when a devastating headache crashed on his head.
He clutched his scalp, closing an eye.
"Psst, psst."
He began hearing the distant pleas of his mate.
Ralph seemed to be calling to him.
Zach shot him a look that clearly said, "wait a bit longer."
Minutes went by, and the headache hadn't subsided. In fact, it seemed to double in intensity.
Zach quickly scribbled on the paper. His major wasn't hard, just a business memo, a ledger draft, ways to woo an interviewer, and various positions in a typical enterprise and what they are responsible for.
But the headache made it a challenging task.
As Zach wrote, the surroundings became hazy. He quickly tackled the last question and passed it to Ralph. At this point, it was almost 7 minutes till the exam came to an end.
Ralph glace at Zach exam sheet and shot Zach a confused look. He looked at the words like he was looking at a strange language.
What a dullard... Zach lampooned.
Ralph just gave up and scribbled the exact same thing Zach wrote.
"60 seconds remaining. Make sure to check your work for any mistakes," the supervisor's voice boomed through the hall.
Ralph tossed Zach the exam sheet as the examiner announced the end of the exam.
The pain in Zach's head kind of subsided. Maybe it was because of the stress of the ongoing exam; now that it's over, he was bound to be much more relaxed.
Zach decided to just skim through his booklet as he walked over to the teacher's counter to drop it like everyone else.
The exam system was rather strict; if the exam ends and you're still writing, that is an automatic 'fail.'
Zach's pupils constricted. He had been blaming Ralph for not being able to understand what he wrote, but...
Filled on the black exam sheet were numerous strange symbols that looked like there where scribbled over and over again . It was complicated, looking like it was written in a long-forgotten language.
Even he didn't know what 'he' wrote.
"What are you waiting for?" The teacher in front of him gestured for him to hand the paper over.
But Zach had no choice. He turned the paper in and left the exam hall, looking like a horse that got its insides removed.
He dragged his feet when he heard a sudden voice behind him.
"Yo, brooo," Ralph said excitedly.
Zach just looked at the gullible student with pity.
He forced a smile across his lips.
"Sup."
Zach just walked home feeling destroyed.
"I'm definitely going to have to wait an extra year before I graduate." He moozed.